Humanities
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Art refers to a diverse range of human activities and artifacts, and may be used to cover all or any of the arts, including music, literature and other forms. It is most often used to refer specifically to the visual arts, including media such as painting, sculpture, and printmaking. However it can also be applied to forms of art that stimulate the other senses, such as music, an auditory art. Aesthetics is the branch of philosophy which considers art. Traditionally the term art was used to refer to any skill or mastery, a concept which altered during the Romantic period, when art came to be seen as "a special faculty of the human mind to be classified with religion and science". Generally art is a (product of) human activity, made with the intention of stimulating the human senses as well as the human mind; by transmitting emotions and/or ideas. Beyond this description, there is no general agreed-upon definition of art.
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English |
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| The English Department, comprised of Dr. Lucas Carpenter, Dr. Adriane Ivey, Dr. Clark Lemons, Dr. Christine Loflin, and Dr. Gretchen Schulz, offers a range of courses—from Writing to Drama; from Poetry to Myth, Fantasy, and Science Fiction; from Shakespeare to Southern Literature; and other courses as well. These courses fulfill college Writing Requirements, General Education humanities requirements, and/or count for courses required for the English major and minor. They are intended for all students, not just those students who wish to major or minor in English. Please see Courses Offered for specific details and prerequisites. We offer these classes in an atmosphere that is designed to engage professors and students in a lively intellectual exchange. We invite you to join us in these dialogues, for we know you will enjoy them as much as we do. |
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Languages |
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| The Language Department, comprised of Dr. Matt Morris (French), Dr. Delia Nisbet (German and Italian), and Dr. Daniel Nahson (Spanish), offers a range of courses in French, German, Italian, and Spanish, including courses in language, literature, culture, and civilization. The Department now also offers introductory courses in Chinese. All of these language courses fulfill General Education humanities/language requirements at both Oxford College and Emory College. The Department offers these classes in an atmosphere that is designed to engage professors and students in a lively intellectual exchange. We invite you to join us in these dialogues. |
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Music
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| The Department of Music offers students the opportunity for the academic study of music, as well as a range of extra-curricular musical activities. Courses offered include Music Appreciation, Topics in Music History, Introduction to Ethnomusicology, and Choral Performance. Extra-curricular activities include membership in the Oxford Chorale, the Oxford Madrigal Singers, and instrumental chamber music ensembles. While Oxford music courses prepare students for the music major and minor at Emory College, they are also designed to fulfill general education requirements and also to offer high quality musical experiences to all who are interested in music, including students with previous musical study and those who are learning about music for the first time. The Department of Music is directed by Dr. Maria Archetto (marchetto@learnklink.emory.edu. ) Anyone who has questions about the music program at Oxford is very welcome to contact her for further information. |
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Philosophy |
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| "All people by nature desire to know." -Aristotle Philosophy begins, as Aristotle tells us, in the innate human capacity for wonder. We in Oxford's Philosophy Department, seek to help our students nurture that native wonder through intellectual discipline and conceptual thoroughness. Philosophy pursues the purest use of the human mind and no presuppositions are to be left unexamined. The members of the Philosophy Department, Dr. Ken Anderson and Associate Dean Kent Linville, offer courses which challenge our students to consider themselves and the world in which they live with a critical eye. We promote an engagement with this unending investigation into the meaning of being human, perhaps captured best two and a half millennia ago by Socrates when he said, "the unexamined life is not worth living." We invite you to join us on that journey and dialogue. |
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Religion |
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| "We are discussing no small matter, but how we ought to live...." -- Socrates, as reported in Plato's Republic The Department of Religion consists of Dr. Eve Mullen (Asian Religious Traditions), Dr. Florian Pohl (Western Religious Traditions), and Dr. David B. Gowler (Biblical Studies). The department offers a range of courses, many of which fulfill General Education humanities requirements at both Oxford College and Emory College. The department also offers special topics courses that emphasize the dialogues between Religion and culture. The members of the Religion Department believe that the academic study of Religion is an intellectual endeavor first and foremost, but it is one that involves questions about fundamental issues of human existence. This endeavor can and should involve a personal journey, one in which academic study and personal convictions are in continual dialogue. In the Religion courses at Oxford College, we therefore seek to promote dialogues that develop, challenge, and enhance both one's intellectural beliefs and one's personal convictions. We invite you to join us on that journey and dialogue. |
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Theater |
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| Oxford offers several Theater Studies courses each year, all of which correspond with offerings in Theater Studies at Emory College and count toward requirement at Oxford and/or Emory Colleges. There are two full-length plays each year directed by the Director of Theater, Dr. Clark Lemons, one each semester. The plays are chosen for their theatrical and cultural significance and may be comedies, tragedies, absurd plays, social commentaries, or almost anything. You won't see Bye Bye Birdie here or Arsenic and Old Lace, but you will have an opportunity to audition for some challenging and thought-provoking plays from ancient Greece to the present, classics (known and unknown) that are also great fun to do. We often go for contemporary plays with an edge. Plays are chosen with our student body and the larger college community in mind; any student may audition for a part or work backstage. In past years we've produced Blue Window, The Fanstasticks, Iphigenia in Aulis, and The Laramie Project. |
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